Ferocity
by it's simply me
Summary: Crystals are a hedgehog's best friend. Everyone knows that; extra power, enhanced speed, chaos control. A bonus for sure. And surely, with a little extra chaos, the effects can only get better, right? Wrong. Sonic/Amy, Shadow/Rouge, Knuckles/Tikal
1. Homecoming

Ferocity

Night had fallen. The landscape was calm, a soft breeze tugging on the surrounding trees, its mysteries filling the branches. Nothing could be heard save for the soft chirping of the crickets and the rustling of leaves as nimble feet dashed over them.

She was almost out of breath, but she was almost there. Her breath was coming out sharp and ragged, her mind racing almost as fast as she was. She forgot, she couldn't believe it. She had been waiting for this day ever since they left and she forgot. They could be home right now, and everyone would have welcomed them back except her.

Suddenly Sonic's private, modestly large villa loomed into view. He had decided to take some of his savings and build himself a house, with a perfect view, even though he only used it for sleeping. The rest of the time he was visiting Tails or running, but he always let any of his friends use it when need be. They had decided to all meet there for the heroes' homecoming. Amy halted, not able to take the strain on her lungs anymore. Slowly she walked over to the door, anticipation pumping through her veins. It would be so awkward, walking in when everyone would be inside.

The pink hedgehog steeled herself over and turned the doorknob. She closed her eyes and walked inside.

"I'm home!" She called out tentatively. No response. She opened her eyes and looked around. The entrance hall was deserted.

"Amy? Is that you?" a small voice called out. Amy turned her head to see Cream peaking around the corner. Cream, Cheese and Amy had stayed home from the mission. Cream and Cheese were likely to be a liability and Amy had stayed home to take care of them.

"Cream! Did the others come home?" She asked, walking into the lounge.

"Hiya Amy." A voice greeted the rose hedgehog. Amy looked up to see the beautiful white bat, Rouge sitting on one of the sofas. Next to her was the small yellow, two-tailed fox, Tails, who was waving at her.

"Rouge! Tails!" Amy said. "Welcome back! Where are the others?"

Rouge and Tails glanced at each other then back at Amy.

"Well, Knuckles went back to Angel Island…." Rouge started.

"And Sonic?" Amy asked, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer. "Shadow?"

"We got separated on the way back. There was a storm, a sand storm, in the desert, so we lost sight of each other. But you shouldn't worry, Amy, they can easily find their way back." Tails smiled reassuringly, seeing the fear in Amy's eyes.

"Yeah, Shadow'll take care of your boyfriend, Amy." Rouge said, smiling. The hedgehog blushed. "And in the slight chance that they _do_ get lost, well, we'll just have to go out and look for them."

"But what if those two also got separated? What if they didn't-"

"Amy, don't worry about it. They'll be back at most by tomorrow, okay?" Rouge said, trying to comfort the petite hedgehog.

Amy smiled at the white bat, knowing she was only trying to help. "So, who wants dinner?"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Sapphire eyes scanned the flawless grounds. Lush green fields and meadows ran from here as far as the eye could see, slowly meeting a lake's edge, then the rocky surface of surrounding limestone hills. A chuckle escaped a pair of full lips. The arrogant blue hero had done a good job when it came to location. If there was one thing Rouge loved more than gems, it was good scenery.

The ivory bat sighed and placed her chin in her palm as she let her mind wander. A tall, black figure obscured her thoughts. Large, bright, blood-red ruby colored eyes stuck out in her vision, almost as if the owner were here. A small frown was formed on the figure's mouth, which was consistently held in place, but it always moved when he was around her.

The female thief smiled as she remembered the hedgehog, Shadow. He was still something she hadn't quite figured out yet. However, she was sure of one thing, he was special to her, but in what way, she still wasn't sure of. All she knew was that whenever they were sent out together on some sort of mission, she felt elated, happy, like she was where she was supposed to be, and that was where she had the most fun. In a very short time, Rouge had developed a very strong liking to-

"Rouge!"

The white bat's ears pricked up to the sound of the familiar, deep voice. She looked down under the balcony. She smiled. The two hedgehogs had returned. She never doubted they wouldn't return, especially if Shadow was there to take care of the carefree, sometimes thickheaded, Sonic.

"Hiya!" she called back.

But as quickly as the smile came, it vanished. Shadow was bent over slightly, but not because he was wounded. He was supporting Sonic. He looked up at her, eyes hardened over, concern clearly there, his mouth pressed into a deeper frown than usual.

She quickly swooped down to the two rivals. She stifled a gasp when she saw Sonic. He was unconscious. Small scratches littered his body, but a huge gash ran across his stomach, staining his azure blue fur into a dull maroon.

"What- what- Shadow how did this happen? He wasn't like this when we left the base." Rouge asked, wanting to help Sonic, but not knowing where to support him without hurting him.

"We'll talk later. We need to help Sonic right now." Shadow said, slowly carrying Sonic to the door.

"I'll call Amy and Tails!" Rouge said, quickly flying to Amy's window. "Amy!" a pile of clothes on the pink hedgehog's bed showed that she had been busy with the laundry. "Quick, get Tails and meet me downstairs!"

"Huh? Why Rouge? I-"

"I'll explain later, Amy." Amy shot her a quizzical look, but ran out the door anyway. Rouge stared after here for a few more seconds, then quietly glided downstairs.

"Shadow?" she called out in the deserted corridor. In a flash, the ebony hedgehog appeared in the doorway leading to the basement.

"He's downstairs. I put him in the med-lab, and once Tails sees him, he should be okay. Where is Tails?" Shadow asked.

"They'll be here any minute now." No sooner had the words come out of her mouth when the little fox and Amy came rushing in.

"What is it? What's the emergency?" Tails asked.

"It's Sonic, he's-" Rouge started.

"Sonic! He's back? Where is he?" Amy cried breathlessly. Rouge decided not to explain the condition he was in, knowing it would create too much commotion.

"He's in the basement." She replied, and without another word, Amy rushed downstairs. She turned to Tails.

"Tails, Sonic came home injured. That's why we called you, to help him." She said.

"Sonic wounded? Wow, that's a first. I'd better go check up on him." He replied, rather calmly. With that he hastened downstairs to tend to his best friend.

Rouge turned to the tall hedgehog next to her. "So Shadow, now you've got to-" Suddenly she spotted a small white gauze wrapped around his upper arm. A large glob of red had stained it, showing that Shadow had also been hurt.

"What's that?" Rouge asked. "You hurt yourself and didn't tell me?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "You know full well Sonic was our greatest priority at that moment. And it doesn't matter, I tended to it myself."

Rouge smiled. "And you sure did a good job. Did you want the band to unravel by itself or did you order it to?"

The dark hedgehog looked at her, then down at his arm.

Rouge smirked at him. "Come on, let me dress that for you properly. And you probably just ran it under the tap, right?"

As she took his hand and led him downstairs, she could swear she heard him mumble something like _'So what if I did.'_

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A lot of things had happened that Amy did not expect. First off, she had completely forgotten about the return of her friends' on the night of their arrival, which she had been planning for days.

Next, she had found out that two of her friends' had not arrived yet and had been separated during a sandstorm. She had also not anticipated her friends' calmness and trust for the two unreturned speed demons.

But what had surprised her most was the condition in which Sonic was in. The blue hedgehog almost never got hurt, due to his supreme speed. But on the rare occasions that he did, he still carried a smile on his face with enough determination and courage to fill the whole team. That was what she loved about him, the way he never gave up, no matter what was happening.

Seeing him so pale, so helpless, so weak made Amy never want to leave his side again. Sonic just wasn't made to look like that. He was meant to be forever seen with a smirk on his face, not a peaceful frown. He was meant to be a bright cobalt blue, not the color of the day sky. But more than that, he was supposed to have his eyes open, not closed seemingly forever. For Amy, an hour was the max. If he hadn't opened before that, she would wake him up forecefully.

After tending to his wounds, Tails had left, clearly uncomfortable with seeing his very best friend in this state. So that left the coral pink hedgehog by herself with her hero, but she didn't mind. Whatever she could do for Sonic, she would do.

"Oh Sonic, you don't know how much I love you, do you? You probably think that I'm some crazy fan girl who'll soon get over you, right? Well, it's not just a crush Sonic, I know that. In a crush my heart wouldn't start beating faster every time you looked at me. In a crush, my eyes wouldn't stay glued to yours. In a crush, my hands wouldn't get sweaty every time you came close to me. In a crush, my heart wouldn't get stuck in my throat every time you talked to me.

"Or maybe that does happen in a crush, I don't know. But I can tell, Sonic, I can feel that this isn't just a wavering crush. This is the real deal…." She trailed off. She must be sounding so stupid, talking to Sonic who was in such deep sleep.

She sighed. It was probably a good thing that he had come home like this. Now, he couldn't run away, he couldn't hurt her in any way; he was just in an innocent sleep-

_'No!'_ she mentally scolded herself. _'That is so selfish of me, thinking like that. Sonic doesn't deserve this, never will he ever.'_

"I'm so sorry, Sonic. I'm so selfish, you don't deserve someone so selfish. I'm sorry." She cried softly. Suddenly, his left ear twitched in her direction. Spotting this, Amy looked at his still closed eyes.

"Sonic? Sonic, are you awake? Sonic?" she asked. But he didn't move. She sighed. Maybe she'd imagined it. Well, one thing was for certain, she would be the first one to greet him in the waking world.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Shadow, you're such a baby!" Rouge scolded, internally smiling.

"I – am – not! Not a baby!" the black hedgehog replied through clenched teeth, his eyes tightly shut.

"Yes you are. I haven't even used the antibiotics and you're wincing." Rouge said, this time, showing her teeth in a grin. At this, Shadow snapped his eyes open and glared at her.

"I was not wincing." He said indignantly. Rouge stared at him.

"Yes you were, and there's no point in denying it, it'll just make you look stupider."

"What?"

"Now hold still." She crooned avoiding the deadly glare in his eye and holding his elbow to keep his arm steady. Just before applying the medicine dipped swab onto his wound, she looked up at Shadow. He had once again turned his head away and had his eyes shut. The ivory bat rolled her eyes, before gently dabbing the cotton ball onto his exposed flesh.

"Alright, all done." She said, sure that this time the dressing would stay. Shadow swiveled around and looked at her handiwork.

"That's it?" he asked, clearly surprised. "But I didn't feel a thing!"

"That's because Rouge the Bat treated ya. Now, you were going to tell me what happened when we got separated."

Shadow nodded, then started talking. "Well, you probably thought that we got lost, right? But I didn't get separated from the X-tornado; I could still here its engine roaring above us, so it was easy to follow. But all of a sudden, I noticed the Faker wasn't next to me. So I turned around and went looking for him. It took some time, but when I found him….well, I found him like this, but it looked like the desert sand was….trying to – swallow him whole."

Rouge stared at him. "The sand was swallowing Sonic." She repeated flatly. "I think you got a little sand stuck in _your_ hole, Shadow."

He glared at her. "I'm serious. Do you think I would joke about something like this?" he asked, annoyed.

"Well, you don't joke to begin with." Rouge said. Shadow just glared at her with his crimson eyes for a while more, then stood up.

"I don't have anything more to say. I told you what I witnessed, and now it's up to you whether or not to believe me." He said icily.

"Wait, Shadow-" but before she could say anything else, he had zoomed off. Rouge sighed. _Great, just great. The one guy with whom I can have an interesting conversation with and I shooed him away. Fantastic Rouge. Fantastic._

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X


	2. Wakening

Ferocity

_"I'm warning you, Eggman, I'm getting bored of this!" The cobalt blue hedgehog yelled. "They're so _**slow**!!_" He easily jumped over one of Eggman's lumbering robots, swinging one foot and cleanly knocking off its head._

_Seeing this, three surrounding robots began charging at the pompous blue hedgehog. Sonic smirked and bent down, ready to jump. "Wait for it…wait for it…Now!" he jumped lightly off the ground. The three robots hadn't anticipated this and rammed into one other, damaging each other's circuitry._

_"You could have at least put some brains in them!" He yelled, turning to look at Eggman's perch at the top of his giant metal creation. _

_"You airhead," a voice yelled. "Stop showing off! Go help Rouge find the emerald so we can get out of here!"_

_"Alright, Knuckles, calm down! Sheesh, it's not like I'll forget."_

_An evil chuckling was heard echoing throughout the colossal chamber. Eggman. "So, you're here for my emerald are you? Well, let me tell you it's not here. I've hidden it."_

_Suddenly Sonic felt a sharp sting on his back. "Yow! What in the-" he reached behind and pulled out what looked like an empty syringe. He turned around to find a robot with a gun shaped like a tube. Sonic smirked._

_"So you're the one that shot this thing onto me, huh? Well, you're still an idiot because it's empty, just like your head." With that, Sonic through the empty needle back at the robot. It crashed right in the middle of its chest and came out the back, leaving a hole in the middle crackling with electricity._

_"What a loser." Sonic muttered to himself. Suddenly Shadow appeared next to him, holding the syringe._

_"This is what that robot shot at you?" he asked. Sonic nodded._

_"But it's empty, I didn't feel anything flow in. Believe me, that thing was as empty as Knuckles' head when he's angry." Sonic said, confident he was right._

_"Hey!" The red echidna yelled from across the room. "I outa come over there and kick your arrogant blue butt halfway to Timbuktu! But unlike you, I stick to the plan!"_

_Sonic shrugged. Knuckles always stuck to the plan. Shadow studied Sonic for awhile. Having those ruby red eyes scan him over was like being x-rayed._

_"What?" Sonic asked, a little nervous. Shadow raised his eyes to meet Sonic's._

_"Just go." He growled. "I really don't know why I shouldn't just help Rouge myself. I'm much more experienced than you are when it comes to working with her."_

_"Ok, Ok, I'll get going. But if you get your butts kicked, don't come running to me." Sonic said, and then zoomed off to the exit Rouge had taken a few minutes ago._

* * *

When Sonic opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the shadow-filled ceiling. He slowly pulled himself up to a sitting position and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. After a few seconds he was finally able to make out the dim outlines of his surroundings.

_'Where am I?'_ he thought. _'The last thing I remember is…running home with the rest of the gang. What happened after that?'_

His emerald eyes scanned the room, trying to find anything that might figure out where he was. Suddenly he heard a slight shifting near him, and his head snapped towards the source of the noise.

She was sleeping, her head resting on the mattress of his bed. Pink rose colored quills spilled over her face and onto the bed, while her eyes were closed in a peaceful sleep. Sonic let out a soft breath of relief; it was just Amy.

He tried to get out of bed and swiveled to his right. He immediately let out a grunt of agony as a peroxide of pain swept through his chest and stomach. He froze, breathing heavily, his eyes closed tight, trying to get the pain to subside. After a few moments the pain faded and Sonic reopened his eyes.

"So I was hurt and brought here." Sonic said, coming to the obvious conclusion. He heard a slight shifting from Amy again, but she soon calmed down again.

_'I somehow got hurt and my pals found me and here I am.'_ Sonic explained to himself mentally, resorting back to his thoughts, not wanting to disturb Amy from her sleep. '_Amy probably just wanted to stay here the entire time, to make sure that if I woke up, somebody would be here. That's how she is. She's too caring for her own good sometimes.' _

He looked over at the sleeping girl and softly brushed a few of her quills out of her face. He looked at her. At 16, she had really changed then her 12 year old self. She was a lot less 'attached' than she used to be, and had stepped back, letting him do what he chose.

And that had let him take a good look at her. And he had been completely astonished by the girl that he saw. He couldn't believe this was the Amy he used to get so annoyed by. First off she was beautiful. Soft pink quills flowed down her face, framing her face perfectly, well styled, simply kept back by her favorite red headband. Then those eyes, why hadn't he noticed them before? A beautiful bright jade green, bright, happy and caring – reflecting her personality – which were now covered with beautifully lashed eyelids.

But that led to him. A few years ago, she was his biggest, most devoted fangirl, and quite frankly, the most annoying one. But now, he was sure her crush on him was gone, and she saw as nothing more than the world's hero. Their positions had practically changed, she had stopped chasing, and he had started wishing she would start again. But she never did. So he tried to focus his mind on running and fighting battles, and they usually worked in distracting his mind from the girl he had fallen for. But _after_ running or fighting, he had nothing to do, and his mind would always focus on her again.

He sighed. _I have to stop thinking about this._ He thought, looking around the room. _I guess I'm stuck here for some time, then._ He moved himself back into his resting position as gently as he could, trying to ignore the bouts of pain that kept shooting up his nerve cells to his brain and the girl that was so close to him, yet so far.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Rouge loved the dark. After all, she _was_ a bat. Even though she went to sleep at night and walked during the day – since most of her friends, comrades and allies did so too – she was always most comfortable at night, or at least in the dark. When the Sun was out and it was bright, her eyesight was reduced to ordinary and there was too much commotion and noise going on for her ears to also work extraordinarily as well.

But once it was dark out and the world had quieted down, Rouge would go out for a few hours and enjoy the cool and the peace. She loved the way she could see every blade of grass on the other side of the lake, or the every ripple in the water or every mouse skip across the rocks. She loved the way she could hear an owl swoop past, the way she could hear the slight shift or grunt from inside the house. The dark was her time to shine, to show the world what she could do.

But that was all before Shadow.

When that black hedgehog had first met her, she had thought 'Well well, another being to see me at work.' But there were two things wrong with that thought. One, Shadow didn't care how good she was, and two, he was just as good as she was, if not better. His moves were lightning fast, while she was reduced to being thunder. His vision was such that he could sense someone at the other side of a wall. Or maybe that was his hearing, but nevertheless, he was better.

At first, she had been burning with frustration and jealousy whenever he got the praise that _she_ so rightly deserved. But she slowly realized that Shadow was just doing his job as her comrade working for GUN, that he hadn't done any of it to show off or to gloat, although when the moment came he did, and quite a bit too. But all things considered, he hadn't meant to make her feel second best.

So Rouge started getting along with Shadow. Of course, he didn't talk a lot, neither did he care about her different treatment towards him, but she found she could really enjoy herself around him. Whenever she talked, he listened and sometimes even told her his opinion. And when she observed him socializing with the others, she found that she and him 'hung out' differently, they talked differently. What they had was special. And she knew he knew that too.

Rouge sighed. She just hoped she hadn't ruined it. Shadow seemed pretty cold about what happened this afternoon. But then again, he was _always_ cold. She sighed softly again and leant against the trunk of her favorite tree.

"So, you're out here too." A deep voice penetrated her thoughts. She turned around and smiled once she saw who it was.

"Hey Shadow." She said. "What are you doing out here?"

He shrugged and walked up so he was level with her. "I like the quiet out here." He said, looking up at the stars.

Rouge smiled. "I know what you mean. I'm a creature of the night, so I guess it's natural for me."

Shadow just gave a light nod. They stood there in a comfortable silence for a little while longer, each enjoying the other's company, both looking up into space, lost in their own thoughts.

Rouge glanced at the ebony hedgehog. He was almost invisible in the darkness, but with her supreme eyesight, she could easily make him out. "Shadow?" she asked tentatively, gazing at him. He turned his head slightly to look at her, showing that she had his attention.

"About today, I'm sorry. It wasn't right of me to not listen to you and I –" she started.

"No Rouge, it wasn't your fault. I – I overreacted, I suppose." This completely surprised the diamond loving bat. Did she hear correctly; _Shadow_ just _apologized_?!

"What?" she asked, unbelievingly.

"I know you heard me." He replied, turning back to look at the stars, not wanting to repeat himself. Rouge continued to stare at him. This was amazing, she had, until this day, never heard Shadow apologize. Just that simple statement made her respect for him multiply. Shadow turned to glance at her and saw her staring at him.

"What, is it that hard to believe that I apologized instead?" he asked, smiling slightly.

Rouge shook her head slightly, snapping herself out of her trance. "No I guess not." She said, lightly nudging his shoulder. He just gave her another small smile. They stayed in another comfortable silence, Rouge glad Shadow was still on talking terms with her. If he was upset, he became even more distant than usual, something she wouldn't allow. It had taken her a long time to get him to open up to her properly.

"Hey, Shadow, aren't you supposed to be asleep?" She asked, the thought suddenly coming to her.

"I don't sleep." He replied. Rouge stared at him unbelievingly. Then Shadow gave her a small grin.

"I'm just joking." He said. "But now that you mention it, I do feel a little drowsy. See you later Rouge." And he left her feeling more confused by his actions than ever.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

His job was unfair, a burden, a curse upon him. Was it his fault that he was the last of his kind? No. Was it his fault that his home happened to be on Angel Island? No. Was it his fault that his ancestors were also the guardians of the Master Emerald? No, of course not. So what if he told everyone it was an honor, so what if he told everyone it was his life? That didn't mean he didn't want to do other things.

Knuckles sighed. It was no use complaining. It was his duty, for him to carry out alone. Nothing happened anymore. Eggman was never a threat, not really. He gave up trying to get the master emerald, satisfied on the smaller ones instead. But the smaller ones weren't really his problem.

So he was usually left bored out of his mind, with nothing to entertain him but the trees and rocks. He always cherished the times when Tikal stopped by to give him advice, although it was always the same thing over and over again; 'Don't get distracted, don't take your job lightly, it is a great honor'. The usual.

So when Sonic dropped by last week to help them with an infiltration mission, he immediately agreed, running to Tikal to tell her to watch over the large stone for a while. Of course, she hadn't been happy about it, saying he shouldn't leave behind his duty to go take part in something that wasn't his business. But if he did that, the excitement in his life would drop down from near zero to negative one.

But now the mission was over and it was back to his normal life. Swinging through trees, digging through the dirt, pleading on his knees for Tikal to drop by and lecture him, his same old normal life.

He walked through the forest, wanting to accomplish nothing in particular. He wondered what Sonic and Tails were doing. Sonic was probably running or joking around with Tails, while the latter worked on some latest invention. He hadn't heard of the speedster since Tails dropped Knuckles off on the island. In fact, not since they left Eggman's base. In fact, he felt slightly worried that something had happened to him, Sonic would usually have seen him off the tornado. But he had been missing. The guardian shrugged it off, knowing it had probably slipped his friend's mind.

The red echidna jumped onto an overhanging branch and onto the one above, not wanting to use his legs anymore. After swinging past a few trees, he noticed a strange glowing nearby. He swung closer to the rock and noticed the shine was coming from a crevice between two large boulders.

He leapt off the branch and near the large stones and – not bothering to contain his curiosity – peered into the gap.

"No, it can't be!" he exclaimed. He pounded his fists into the stone until he dug his way through to the object. Gently, he picked it up, staring at it. The green gem shone unlike anything else in the world, not needing a source of light to help it glow, but gathering its energy from somewhere else. The chaos emerald was one of those things that was so pure, but if misused, could be one of the most deadliest object known to man.

"How could it have ended up here?" Knuckles asked himself. "Tikal hid away all the emeralds together in a place no one would ever find it."

The emerald continued twinkling up at him. "I'll have to go and ask her myself." He said, and started his way back to the temple which held the master emerald.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"How's he doing?" Tails asked the pink hedgehog.

"I don't know. He still hasn't woken up yet." She replied quietly. Tails walked over to the older girl.

"Don't worry Amy, it's still quite early, and Sonic was quite beaten up when Shadow found him. He needs his rest." Tails tried reassuring her. She still looked gloomy. "And don't forget, he's a fast healer too."

Amy sighed. Tails diverted his eyes from her, thinking of a way to help her relax.

"Amy, you're still in here?" a voice entered the room. They both turned around to see Rouge. Amy just nodded, clearly not in the mood to talk.

"Have you had breakfast?" the white bat asked. Again, Amy shook her head.

"Have you even gone to the bathroom?" Rouge demanded. A silent 'no' was her answer again. "That's it, young lady, you can't keep wasting your time waiting to see if Sonic will wake up or not! What happens if he doesn't wake up, huh? What then?"

Suddenly Amy turned around and glared at the ivory bat. They could practically see green flames erupting behind her irises.

"Don't you _ever_ say that! Sonic will wake up! He will!" she yelled.

Rouge looked absolutely startled, but Tails couldn't blame her. Who would've expected kind, sweet hearted, down-to-earth Amy to burst out like that?

"Okay Amy, he will wake up, but you don't want him to see you looking like that do you? First make yourself presentable, okay?" Rouge said softly. After a moment's silence, Amy got up and left the room without another word.

Rouge looked over at Tails. "I really do hope blue boy wakes up soon, you saw what just happened now. And besides, it's too quiet around here. Sure the change is good, but I know we'll start to miss all the laughter and witty remarks sooner or later."

She glanced out the window and then, without waiting for an answer, Rouge also followed Amy out of the room.

Tails turned around to look at his fallen friend. He quietly went next to the bed and sat down on the chair Amy had formerly occupied. It seemed so strange, so surreal, to see Sonic in this condition. He was usually the one taking care of Tails, not vice versa. Tails could almost feel himself start to cry as he remembered Rouge's words. She was right, what if he didn't wake up, then what?

_No! _Tails thought. _I will not let that happen. Sonic can easily heal himself with the power of a chaos emerald, so if he doesn't wake up after at most another night, I'm going out there to find one myself._

His soft blue eyes hardened over with determination to save the one being that was like a brother to him. He wouldn't let some storm and a couple of scratches take away the closest thing he had to a family.

He soon diverted his gaze to look outside the window. They had moved Sonic to his room, which really held nothing but a bed and a small table. That wasn't to say it wasn't decorated. A soft carpet was layed on the floor, a few well-designed paintings hanging from the wall.

After a few moments, Tails slowly got up. He also hadn't had his breakfast yet. With one last glance at the sleeping hedgehog, Tails slowly started walking away, not enjoying the fact that one of their team's strongest members had become – only temporarily, Tails would make sure of that – one of their weakest.

He was almost at the door when he heard a drowsy voice call out. "Tails? Is that you?"

Tails froze. It couldn't be could it? He swiveled around, holding his breath, hardly daring to believe it.

Sonic was still lying flat on his bed, just like before, but this time, his head was turned in the direction of the small fox and his eyes were half open. But they were finally open.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled happily, dashing forward to the bed once again. "You're awake!"

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Yeah, I think so too."

Tails gave a short laugh. "How are you feeling?" At this, Sonic tried to push himself up against the headboard. Halfway through the process he stopped and clutched his bandaged side. He winced and let out a grunt of pain.

"Oh man, I thought sleeping it out would make the pain go away." He said.

"Want me to get some pain killers?" Tails asked. Sonic gently pulled himself up and leant against the headboard.

"Will that mean I'll be able to run again?"Sonic asked, looking hopefully at Tails.

"I'm afraid not. We can't let you out until you're 100 per cent better again." The golden fox replied.

"Then forget it. I want to go outside! I hate being cooped up in here." He complained.

"Of course you do, we know how much you love the outdoors, Sonic. But how about we all take it in turns to visit you? Then you'll never be alone."

Sonic just folded his arms and 'humphed'.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Tails said. "You hungry?"

At this the azure hedgehog looked up. "Boy am I! I'm sure you can hear my stomach from the moon!"

Tails rolled his eyes. "Ya, if sound could travel through space."

"Hey, don't go all nerdy on me Tails."

Tails laughed. At least Sonic's attitude hadn't changed. "I'll have someone bring breakfast up, okay?"

He nodded.

"Then I'll see you later Sonic." Tails said, and walked downstairs, an extra skip to his step. His brother had woken up.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

So, what do you think? The next chapter should be up pretty soon, depending on the results. See you later!


	3. Demonic

Ferocity

_"I'm starting to think Eggman really did hide the chaos emerald. I can't find it anywhere." Sonic muttered to himself after breaking apart another room without finding the powerful gem. _

_"I wonder where Rouge is." He asked himself. He skidded to a halt in front of the next room, ready to take apart anyplace that the doctor could have hid the jewel._

_"Maybe I should have gone with her when she told me too instead of letting her have a head start by herself." _

_"Yeah, you should have." A suave voice answered behind him. He spun around and saw Rouge hovering in the doorway, a smile on her face. "It would have been a lot easier searching through these rooms with your speed. I've already checked the rooms on this floor. Let's go to the next one. Oh, and there was no need to trash every room before you left." _

_Sonic lowered his ears slightly in embarrassment. Now that he thought about it, it did seem like a stupid thing to do._

_They both went to the next level, ready to search every inch they could. But as they reached the top of the stairs, they found themselves face to face with a 10 foot tall robot, complete with hovering capability and a perfect red coat of paint._

_"Alright, looks like we get to have part of the action up here too!" Sonic exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. Rouge rolled her eyes._

_"Incorrect vocal authorization." The robot beeped. Sonic raised an eyebrow._

_"What did he say?" Sonic asked, turning to Rouge for a translation. "I mean, I understand 'incorrect', but what do the other two words-"_

_"See for yourself." She said, staring at the robot. Sonic turned back to look at the machine. Its long robotic arms had morphed themselves into what looked like lasers, and its second pair had transformed into sharp glinting razors. _

_"Incorrect vocal authorization. Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" It started screeching a loud siren, obviously calling for backup. Its gun started shooting at the two comrades._

_Rouge quickly swiveled around and kicked onto one of the metal plates on the walls, cutting out a piece and holding it in front her as a shield. Sonic quickly dashed along the wall so he was soon behind the machine._

_"Rouge, you got any rings?" he called out to the bat._

_"Not on me now, no!" she yelled back, lasers bouncing in all directions from the metal plate. Sonic quickly bent over, ready to fight with his fists when he heard a clunking behind him. He swiveled around to see a parade of robots marching towards them, all with lasers and bullets in hand._

_"All right, time to party!" Sonic cried out. His eyes scanned over the machines, trying to get an idea of what he was dealing with. But before he could decide what to do, a black blur shot past him, first crashing through the robot shooting at Rouge, then started bouncing back and forth from each of the oncoming robots like a pinball ball._

_"Alright Shadow!" Sonic cheered, then curled himself into a ball and helped his ally with his own homing attacks. Soon only four robots were left, but these weren't affected by the force of the two hedgehogs' attacks._

_It uncurled an arm and swung the two lightning fast balls into the wall._

_"Ow, that's gonna hurt in the morning." Sonic mumbled, rubbing his head as he groggily got up._

_"We obviously need to use an alternate method to destroy the remaining ones." Shadow said._

_"Chaos Spear!" he yelled, creating a fist of powerful energy and thrusting it forward towards the first robot, destroying it as if it was a box of cardboard._

_"I was just about to do that, Shadow." Sonic said, grinning at his black counterpart. He focused on his right hand and felt a rush of energy converge and join there. He took aim at the next machine._

_"Sonic Wind!" he yelled as a powerful blast of speeding blue air whipped and tore at the machine pulling it apart from the bolts._

_"Black Wave!" Rouge yelled from above, waving her hands in front of her and sending out a wave of black energy hurtling at the last two robots._

_"Alright! We took care of them, no problem!" Sonic cheered._

_"Shadow, aren't you supposed to be helping Knuckles and Tails with Eggman?" Rouge asked._

_"Yes, but if I let Faker here try and help you find the emerald Eggman stole, we'd be here for a whole year." Shadow said as Sonic glared at him, his victory celebration cut short by Shadow's bluntness. "I propose him and I switch places. He takes my place fighting the giant pile of scrap metal Eggman is driving and I take his place helping you."_

_At this Sonic perked up. "Fine by me!" He said, and shot off down stairs._

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Morning is where it all started. The sun rose over the far off horizon bathing the world in its golden light, breaking the darkness. The birds wake up, opening their beaks to sing while go off to find food. The light lovers aroused themselves while the nocturnals hit the hay. The people wake up, unaware of anything on the outside world taking place, too absorbed in drowsiness or their rituals for their jobs. Then the world starts fully, the atmosphere clouded over by the noises that everything and everyone had grown accustomed to.

It was this change from tranquility to liveliness that Amy loved to watch. So she would always wake up a little before dawn and head out to the roof. From there she would watch it all happen, the slowly lighting sky change from black to navy blue to light blue to purple to blue to gold as the sun rose. She would watch and listen as the birds woke up, hearing their soft chirps grow louder, then finally the distant city wake up. She enjoyed it so much that she never failed to wake up at that time, even if it meant going to sleep early.

But this time as the Sun shone its light on the dwelling, it met an empty ledge, the space filled up with nothing but air. For Amy had missed the first sunrise since she started watching a year and a half ago.

Amy fiddled with her bacon. She just wasn't in the mood. She sighed. Rouge had told her to take a shower, so she had. She had told her to have breakfast, so she agreed. Cream, Vanilla and Cheese had joined them as well. They were all so happy, so relaxed. Amy envied them. How could they be so happy? It was so unfair, why couldn't she also be like that? Or rather, why weren't _they_ like that? Was she the only one who cared about what happened to Sonic? Was she the only one who realised what could happen? Or maybe she was just over reacting?

Suddenly Tails walked in. Amy glanced at their small friend. He seemed absolutely ecstatic, smiling so widely she was sure he was showing all of his pearly whites and his eyes seemed to be glowing. He obviously had good news. Amy turned away. It was probably something along the lines of him finishing his greatest invention yet and that he couldn't wait to show it to them. She had no business in finished machinery.

"You guys, Sonic says he's hungry and wants his eggs cooked sunny side up." Tails choked out happily.

It took a few moments to sink in. When it did, the reactions of all her friends were quite humorous, should Amy have been paying attention. Rouge spit out the orange juice she was drinking, Cream choked on her egg and Vanilla patted her on the back, while smiling to herself. Cheese just started flying above all the ruckuss, chearing in his little chao talk.

Amy jumped off her seat and turned to Tails, who was giggling slightly. "You're joking, right?" she asked, pleading that she was wrong.

"Of course not!" Tails said. "Now, I think you guys should take him his breakfast soon, you know how impatient he gets. Oh, and he wants someone to be with him, 'cause he doesn't like being alone."

"I'll go!" Amy cried just as soon as Tails finished and started dashing to the door.

"Hang on sweetie." Vanilla's calm voice stopped her. "I'm sure Sonic can wait a few minutes. You first finish your breakfast and then you can take him his."

Amy nodded, beaming, feeling absolutely elated. She couldn't wait to see him, finally awake. It seemed like it had been months since she had last spoken to him, whereas it had only been a few days. She quickly gobbled up her breakfast and gulped down her juice, then impatiently waited for Vanilla to prepare Sonic's meal, impatiently tapping her foot.

As soon as Vanilla handed her the tray, Amy rushed to the door, barely noting down Vanilla saying to tell Sonic 'hi' from her. She quickly reached the top of the stairs, but stopped in front of the door. What would she say to him? What would he say to her? Would he even want to see her? But then she heard a thud from inside the room and quickly pushed open the door.

She scanned the room, expecting something unusual. But there was only one thing unusual; Sonic had disappeared.

"Okay, that was a _really _stupid thing to do." She heard a strained voice say.

"Sonic?" she asked.

"A little help, please?" he said. She quickly put the tray on a nearby table and went over to the other side of the bed. He had obviously fallen over. He had landed head first and was on his back, one hand clutching his stomach and the other bunched up into a fist. His feet were sticking up, leaning on the side of the bed. Amy held in a giggle. There was only one word for this: adorable.

She kneeled down next to him and gently grabbed his shoulders. Feeling her touch, Sonic opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Amy?" he asked. She smiled down at him. It felt so good, hearing his voice again.

"Come on, let's get you back up." She said, gently pulling him. He started pushing up as well, although he was mainly relying on Amy's support.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Oh, ow." He winced softly. Amy's eyes softened. It wasn't fair that he was in so much pain. He hadn't done anything wrong, had he?

Soon he was back in bed, with his arms crossed. "Oh come on! I can't even walk?!"

"Sonic, why'd you fall down?" Amy asked, a smile in her voice.

"I thought maybe I'd be able to at least look out the window which is about a _meter_ _away from me_!" he said angrily.

"Don't worry, Sonic, you'll get better soon enough. Come on, I brought breakfast for you." She said, walking over to the table where she left the tray.

"Awesome! Thanks Ames!" Sonic thanked. Amy smiled and put the tray in front of him.

She raised an eyebrow. "Ames?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, I mean, uh-" he said a hint of a blush on his face. Amy smiled again. _I've just spent 3 minutes with Sonic and I can't stop smiling. _She thought.

"It doesn't matter, I like it." She said softly looking at him. He also raised his brilliant green eyes to meet her jade ones. He returned her soft smiled. It was such a new look for Sonic. She had only seen the blue hedgehog give a look of determination or smirking. She had never seen him give him such a soft, sweet, caring expression before. It made her look at him with a new light, made her notice that there was a side to Sonic that she had never seen before, and that only made her love him more.

He turned back to look at his food, but didn't make a move to eat it. After spending a few moments lost in his thoughts, Sonic turned to face her again.

"Amy, I … I want to thank you." He said sincerely, looking straight at her.

Amy's breath caught in her throat. "Why?"

"For caring. For staying here all last night when you could have slept in your own bed. For being here for me when I didn't ask you to be." He replied, smiling softly.

"You woke up last night, didn't you?" she said, embarrassed that he'd seen her in that state of disorder. She had been all sweaty and dirty, but had forgotten about that when she saw what had happened to her hero. All of a sudden, she was glad Rouge told her to take a bath and clean up today.

His smiled broadened into the smirk she was used to. "Yep."

She got up and turned around and started heading towards the door.

"Hey Amy, where are you going? I'm sorry I woke up in the middle of the night but I couldn't help it, could I? Don't be mad I-" Sonic stopped as Amy pressed her soft lips against his cheek. She let them linger there for a while then pulled away.

"I'm not mad." Amy murmured into his ear, then she straightened up. Sonic had his mouth hanging open and his eyes stretched wide, frozen, clearly surprised. Amy smiled, then walked out of the room, but not before turning around and saying

"Oh, and Vanilla says 'hi'."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Crimson eyes scanned the barren landscape. Nothing seemed wrong; the sand was smooth, the air was still and thick and the Sun was swelteringly hot. Other than that, nothing else was happening.

"Are you sure this is the place Shadow?" Rouge asked him.

"I'm sure." He replied still looking for something out of the ordinary.

They were both standing in the shade of a relatively tall, rocky hill. The two had gone out to the place Shadow insisted he had seen Sonic nearly get 'swallowed' (Rouge had rolled her eyes again when Shadow told her) at. They had to find some sort of reason behind, first of all, Sonic's leaving them for this place, and then, the sand behaving in that way.

"Well, I don't see anything out of the ordinary." Rouge stated matter-of-factly. "Let's just go, I'm cooking here."

Shadow didn't say anything. There _had_ to have been a reason. Something happened, but he wasn't sure what. Sonic was busy talking when they had been coming home, but then all of a sudden he shut up, and Shadow was sure that's when he started coming here.

The black hedgehog started walking, turning to look at different points. He had asked Sonic why he went there and Sonic said the last thing he remembered was coming home from that failure of a mission. Shadow sneered. Why couldn't he remember anything? Why? Was he so thick he couldn't remember something that so clearly distracted him?

But that had Shadow thinking. His blue rival could remember everything else clearly, obviously so, because when he had visited Sonic, the hedgehog had started bragging about how he easily beat Eggman's giant robot when Shadow couldn't.

So if Sonic could remember those moments and he couldn't remember these, then something had happened to his memory. Perhaps he had hit his head and caused amnesia for those specific thoughts. But no, that seemed too unlikely. Suddenly a thought rolled into the ebony hedgehog's mind.

'_Maybe something had taken over his mind while passing this area!_' Shadow thought. '_The power source would have taken over Sonic's mind and led him here, so the Faker would not remember anything, since another being would have been in control!_

_'But the question is, who or what took control?'_ Shadow paced back and forth, unaware of anything around him, absorbed in his thoughts. Then a thought occurred to him.

_'The Doctor! He must have been behind it somehow! That syringe the robot shot into his back!' _Shadow thought._ 'That must have contained some sort of fluid in it! Even though the Faker said he didn't feel anything, I know something entered his body. I detected a higher level of chaos radiating off him. The tingling surge of power in my rings' _As he thought this he looked down at the bands clamped around his wrists. '_At the time I didn't think anything of it, thinking it just might be something to do with the surroundings and Eggman's robots. But obviously it must have been the potion in the syringe._

_'But what would that do? Why would the Faker be attracted to this area when he was injected with more chaos?'_ Then it clicked. Shadow's eyes widened in realization. He remembered Eggman saying, _'Ha, so you're here for my emerald are you? Well, let me tell you it's not here. I've hidden it."_

He quickly turned around to look at his ivory colored companion.

"Rouge!" he said. "I think there's a chaos emerald somewhere around here!"

The jewel loving thief's eyes widened. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes, now let's spread out a bit and look, but not too far. Remember that Sonic only came to this area." He replied. Rouge clearly had many questions to ask, but instead she nodded and took off. Shadow smiled a little. That was why he loved working with Rouge. She always knew when to ask questions, when to follow orders, when to joke around…well almost always.

He turned to look at the rocky mound behind him. It was extremely wide, meaning that the emerald could be hidden deep inside. There was no opening on this side so he skated round the hill, taking care to see if there were any openings. Soon enough, he found a small one, about as high as his waist, just as he'd expected.

"Rouge!" He called out again. "Over here!"

After a few moments, she appeared, hovering a few feet above him. "What is it?" She asked.

"There's some sort of opening here." He said pointing.

"Good work Shadow!" she said. "Let's go in and take a look inside."

Shadow knelt down and started crawling through it. "Follow me." Shadow told Rouge.

"Right behind you." He heard her reply. They entered the tunnel, Shadow leading and Rouge following. After a few seconds, Shadow saw the tunnel open up into a larger space and he could see a small light at the end of it.

"I see a light at the end of the tunnel." Shadow said.

"No Shadow, don't go into the light!" Rouge joked.

Shadow gave a small 'hm' of laughter. They reached the passageway's end and Shadow got out and stood up, but stopped, forgetting that Rouge was behind him. In her haste to get out Rouge tripped over her feet and ended up crashing into the black hedgehog in front of her.

"Rouge? What did you do that for?" Shadow asked as he groggily got up. He opened his eyes and met himself face to face with a pair of bright sapphires. He let out his breath slowly, never breaking contact with Rouge. Bright, cerulean eyes stared back into his ruby red. Suddenly she blinked and looked over his head.

"Hey Shadow, look!" Rouge exclaimed, getting off him, a small blush apparent on her face. "You were right!" For lying at their feet was the yellow chaos emerald. Rouge bent down and gently picked it up.

"How did you find out it was here?" She asked. Shadow opened his mouth to reply but was cut off. "No, let's first get out of here, I'm starting to run out of air."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"And its speed is almost as fast as yours, Sonic! I've added an extra rocket, that's why." Tails told his best friend who was listening carefully, trying to grab anything from the outside world.

"It sounds awesome, Tails." Sonic told his friend. "I just wish I could see it for myself. We could even race to see how fast it goes." Sonic sighed, just imagining all the entertainment he was missing.

"Well, it can't go that fast anymore. It can't even get off the ground, because of that extra booster I added." Tails said sadly.

Sonic looked at his small friend. "Why not?"

"Well, Eggman stole the chaos emerald, remember?" Tails said, finding it slightly funny that Sonic had forgot the reason they went to Eggman's base in the first place, the reason he was stuck in bed.

"Oh yeah! Shadow didn't find it. I shouldn't have gone back, I should have stayed and helped Rouge. Maybe then we would have found it. I'm sorry Tails."

"It's not your fault, Sonic. Even you know Shadow's better at finding the emeralds than you are. I don't mind. So long as I can build things, I'm okay." Tails said, smiling.

"Hey Tails, get down here!" a voice called from downstairs, outside. Tails looked back at his friend.

"Guess they need me." He said, asking permission to leave.

"Sure, go ahead, pal." Sonic said, a small smile on his face. With that, Tails quickly walked out of the room downstairs, leaving Sonic alone with his thoughts, leaving him more aware of his surroundings.

All of a sudden, he felt…better, healed, stronger. Almost robotically, he turned around, this time not feeling any pain. Barely registering this, he lifted himself off the bed, walked a few feet then fell. He obviously wasn't fully better.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard outside the bedroom.

"I heard a thud. Are you alright, blue boy?" Rouge asked. She looked down at the fallen hedgehog and smirked. He just never learned. "Here, let me help you up."

She grabbed his shoulders and hoisted him up. Suddenly Sonic perked up. Another surge of energy flew through him. Without thinking, he roughly shoved Rouge aside and walked out of the room, not giving his actions a second thought.

--

"Oh wow, Shadow!" the goldenrod fox exclaimed. His big blue eyes examined the rock as Shadow handed it to him. "It's the emerald Eggman stole from us!" he looked up at the taller, ebony hedgehog, smiling.

"Thanks so much!" the hedgehog gave a small nod, his way of saying 'no problem'. "Maybe if I give this to Sonic, he'll be able to heal himself! Wait till I go show it to him!"

He started rushing towards the entrance when he stopped. There was Sonic, heading towards them, ripping off his bandages simultaneously. Tails' eyes widened.

"Sonic you're better!" he exclaimed. "But how?"

The fox was met with a fierce, emerald stare. Tails gasped. Something was wrong with Sonic, he could feel it, there was something unnerving about him, besides the fact that he now seemed completely cured. Sonic smirked and opened his mouth.

"Hand me the chaos emerald." He said in a low voice. The yellow fox furrowed his eyes perplexedly. What was going on?

Suddenly Rouge flew out through the door.

"Guys, something is up with Sonic!" she cried, but then spotted the blue hedgehog already in the yard. She barely had time to widen her eyes in surprise when she was roughly shoved against the wall, hanging by the throat.

"Something's _up_ with Sonic? Really? Something's up with me? What makes you think that, you pathetic life form? It's just little old me, nothing special." The cobalt hedgehog snarled in her face, mirth of her pain in his eyes.

"Sonic, what's gotten into you?!" Tails yelled, shocked. No sooner had the words left his mouth when Sonic was sent crashing to the floor ten feet away. Rouge fell to her knees, gasping, drinking in the air. Shadow stood over her, facing the fallen male, ruby eyes narrowed in newly aroused dislike.

"I don't know what's happened to you, Sonic, but if you do that again, you won't live to tell the tale." Shadow growled menacingly, watching Sonic rise to his feet.

He turned to the crimson streaked hedgehog with a sneer. "I repeat, give me the chaos emerald, and no one gets hurt."

"Why would you want the chaos emerald, Sonic?" Tails asked, stepping in, wanting to find a rational explanation to his friends' behavior. He mentally flinched as the icy stare was placed on him.

"Isn't it obvious, foolish being? I will gain more power, gain the element of the emerald. Once I have gained control over it, no one will stop me, and then," Sonic lowered his voice to a deep rumble. "that will be when the fun really begins."

Tails shot a pointed glance at Shadow saying 'come up with a plan', then turned back to his altered friend.

"But you never needed that power before, why now?" Tails asked, trying to drag on the conversation to give Shadow some time to talk it over with Rouge.

Shadow, understanding Tails' hidden meaning, turned his head slightly to the bat behind him while keeping his eyes on his rival.

"Rouge, what happened when you went upstairs?" Shadow asked.

The green eyed hedgehog replied to Tails' former question. "I always knew of its power, I just hadn't wanted to harness it before. I was blind, but I have unlocked the true power behind the emerald, and now I shall hold its brilliance!"

"I don't know, I just found him on the floor, helped him up, then he shoved me and walked calmly out of the room!" she whispered back. Shadow thought quickly. The blue wonder hadn't been like that when they had left for the desert, and obviously he was acting fine while they were gone, otherwise Tails would have rushed out and told them as soon as they'd come back.

"Enough of this small talk, hand me the chaos emerald, or face my wrath!" Sonic bellowed. Shadow perked up. The chaos emerald!

Suddenly Sonic made a move towards the yellow fox, but before he could get far, Rouge stepped forward and held out her hand. "Black Wave!" she yelled, letting out a flash of black energy, crashing into Sonic and halting him momentarily.

"Tails, the chaos emerald is somehow causing Sonic to behave like this. We have to do something to cut off its power!" Shadow called out to his young ally. The fox's ears perked up as an idea came to him.

"I know just the thing!" he yelled and started making his way to the house.

"Get back here!" Sonic yelled speeding towards Tails. With lightning fast reflexes, Shadow stuck his foot out, causing the newly possessed hero to trip.

"Even with this new-found power you claim to have, you're still pathetic." Shadow scoffed as he walked calmly in front of him. Suddenly he felt a strong grip just above his ankle and with a mighty force was thrown into the wall of the house. He got up slowly, a pounding pain in the back of his head, one eye closed, the other opened a bit to watch this newly improved Sonic slowly approach.

His eyes looked emblazoned with rage and a slight touch of insanity. This Sonic hated being overpowered.

"You fool," Shadow heard Sonic growl. "You have just sentenced yourself to the end of your pathetic life!"

Shadow got up, ignoring the slight bouts of pain that swept through his body. He wasn't going to give this creature holding the name 'Sonic' to have the pleasure of knowing he caused him pain. He balled his fist, waiting for an attack, but hoping that Tails would reach his destination soon.

Suddenly Sonic pounced, knocking Shadow to the ground, his gloved hand pressing mercilessly against the midnight black hedgehog's windpipe. Shadow bared his teeth as he winced, then gasped for breath. He started seeing black and he clamped his eyes shut. Then all of a sudden, he felt the pressure on his throat diminish and greedily gulped in the air.

After filling his lungs with sufficient amount of air, he opened his eyes, realising he still couldn't get up. Before he could comprehend what had happened, he felt a rush of air knock a weight off of him. He sat up and looked around.

"Stay away from him!" He heard a strong, flowing voice yell. Rouge. He smiled gratefully up at the bat, who had her sapphire eyes fixed on something on the floor. He turned his head, suddenly remembering the battle he was having with Sonic. The hedgehog in question lay on the floor, his mouth shaped into a grimace, his hand rubbing his head gingerly. Shadow quickly leapt up, ready to fight when Sonic snapped his eyes open and glared at Rouge.

"What did you do that for?!" He yelled. Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, confused. What had just happened? Sonic had just been in the middle of destroying them. "Man that hurt!"

Sonic stiffly got up, still holding his head. "Sheesh Rouge, what did I do? I feel like me head has been ripped off!"

The two smirked as they watched the blue hedgehog moan in pain. Sonic was back to normal. Shadow crossed his arms. Tails had reached his destination.

"Oh please, you've been in worse pain than that." He said, rolling his eyes, knowing he was right. Rouge placed her hand on her hip.

"Yeah, you are _such_ a drama queen!" she said. Sonic stopped from his swaying steps and removed his hand from his head.

"I am not a queen!" he said indignantly. Rouge chuckled and shared a sideways glance with Shadow.

"I apologize for interrupting your little gathering, but I must speak with Sonic the hedgehog." A voice interrupted the three. They turned their heads to watch Tikal serenely glide into the yard.

**

* * *

**

So that's the third chapter. I updated soon (well, soon for me) because I won't be able to for quite some time, since school starting again! Wah!

**Leave any comments you might have, anything that could be going through your mind right now. Everything is appreciated, and who knows? Maybe if you guys let me know what you feel, I could put the next chapter up soon. Tomorrow maybe. So review!**


	4. Insight

Ferocity

_It was sunset and the sky was filled with the majestic colors of gold, orange and pink. Just over the tip of the horizon, long, glowing, luminescent rays of the days last stokes of sunlight could be seen brushing out from the golden orb, starting from an bright, solid amber and slowly fading away into the night as the distance increased. Truly the scene was one to which thousands of people would journey hundreds of miles just to get a glance at it. It reflected what one would call 'the mirror of paradise.' _

_However, the view was obscured by a large sandstorm. Flowing pieces of s__and, each given the look of a garnet thanks to the diminishing sun, were hurtling around the desert, giving an eerie feeling of a sandy tornado. Althought it would seem like a sandstorm, it was slightly different. The relatively large storm had very clear edges. The storm's pieces would be churning about in one place, and then, no further than an inch, would the air be clear once again._

_The cause of the storm, although it could be thought of as natural, was clearly created by a force. Two foggy shodows could be seen through the countless billions of rock particles._

_"Give me the chaos emerald!" A blue being yelled through the churning waves of sand, clearly talking to the being near him._

_"Stay away, bearer of impure chaos." A deep voice rumbled. "We have aided you, only when we have seen fit. Now is not the time of us to help you gain power. Be gone."_

_Sonic's eyes glowed and crackled, power obsession clear. He would not be denied something by a pathetic voice. He was far superior than anything or anyone else, and it was his right to own the powerful jewels. _

_He channeled a wave of energy through his body, making him glow an eerie blue. He thrust his hands forward and called,_

_"Sonic wind!" A blizzard of blue winds barreled forward toward the outline of the shadowy figure, but his winds did not go far before a curtain sand flung itself up in front of the figure, taking its damage instead._

_"We know who you are, Sonic the Hedgehog," the voice said. It was a deep voice, but not deep enough to be male. The being was clearly a female. "We also know what has become of you now. You are demented, unworthy of ever possessing one of the seven servers. Try to obtain us in our element, you shall fail. Take us by force, destruction shall reign. Remember this, possessed being."_

_"Destruction huh?" the azure hero asked. "Heh, you just convinced me to take the emeralds all over again. Now where is it?!"_

_He took a step forward, and that did it. The desert sands started whistling with new-found ferocity. Sonic halted in his steps and clamped his eyes shut and covered his face with his arms, cowering from the sea of miniature rocks. The sand formed waves, creating sharp, lethal looking forms, heading for the cringing hedgehog. They swiped at him profusely creating small cuts and scratches beneath his ruffled-up fur. _

_Sonic gave a mighty roar and flung his hands out blindly, keeping his eyes tightly shut, trying to swat away the powerful, small bullets. But the sands were ceaseless. He quickly rolled into a ball and started spinning away, but he hadn't gone far when he felt a dropping sensation in his gut; the sensation of falling._

_He quickly snapped open his eyes and flung out his arms, and felt contact with hard ground. Glancing down, he saw a large, never-ending black void just under him. He clung on tighter to the ledge, then started to heave himself up. Once he was out, he sprung to his feet, anger swirling in his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him and swiveled around. _

_The shadowy figure had emerged so that he could see her clearly. She was in the form of what looked like a tall_,_ sandy brown desert fox. She looked like an Egyptian queen. Long, white robes ran down her slim figure. A large, heavy-looking gold necklace hung around her neck. Her long, almond shaped eyes were lightly lined with black. A curtain of silky ebony hair ran down to her shoulders, her shorter bangs running till they just brushed her eyebrows. Elegantly positioned on her head was a golden tiara. In her hand, she held a scepter with a yellow, perfectly smooth, spherical, amber-like gemstone shining on the top._

_"Foolish mortal," she said impassively with her same cool voice. "I warned you, had I not, that to involve yourself with the elements will be fatal. It was of your decision that you disobeyed my warning, and now, you will meet your end."_

_With a swing of her staff, a strong rain of sand charged at Sonic, hitting him like a blade would swipe through water. The blue speed demon cried out in pain as he clutched his wound, maroon already beginning to stain his glove and fur. He fell to his knees, his jaw clamped shut, his teeth bared as unbearable pain swept through his body. With another rough push, and adding another flood of pain through his body, a wave of sand knocked him backwards back into the void he had just climbed out of._

_He was just about to open his mouth in a yell when he felt a pull on his hand. Looking up, he saw a black creature, his duplicate with several variations, pulling him up and onto safe ground. Dimly looking around, he noticed that the storm and the powerful, sandy goddess had disappeared. Suddenly, the feel of unbearable pain overcame his curiosity and anger. He felt very faint, barely able to stand without help from his savior._

_"What happened?" Shadow asked. _

_Sonic barely registered his voice as he panted softly, still aching severely from the large wound. Then, without another thought, his world turned black. _

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Tikal, there you are!" A red echidna exclaimed as he found the beige furred princess looking out over the sea which surrounding the lush green land of Angel Island. She turned and gave a beautiful, warm smile at the guardian.

"Yes, friend Knuckles. I take it you were searching for me?" she asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, I want you to look at something." Knuckles said. He thrust out his palm which held the green emerald. He watched her features turn from mild curiosity, to utter astonishment.

"Where did you find that, Knuckles?" she breathed, her eyes even brighter with the glow of the emerald.

"Somewhere nearby. But that's not the point. Tikal, I thought you said you'd taken the emeralds away!" Knuckles said. Tikal raised her eyes from the emerald to look at Knuckles' amethyst-like eyes.

"I had." Tikal replied, fear in her eyes. "Something happened, I don't know where or when, but something triggered fear into the emeralds, causing them to spread."

Knuckles looked at her, then his eyes widened as a thought struck him. "Oh yeah, Sonic had an emerald too, which was stolen by Dr Eggman. That's why I had to go on that mission, to help them get it back."

"What? Sonic had an emerald and you never told me?" Tikal asked.

"Yeah, it sort of slipped my mind. Sorry?" he said, more as a question than an apology.

"Knuckles! How could you have forgotten? This means disaster is on the way, and you tell me you have forgot?!" Tikal asked, outraged. "After all that training, all those warnings I gave you, I-"

"Hey, come on Tikal, if you stay angry, you'll ruin that pretty little face of yours. Not that you look bad now or anything." Knuckles said, a small grin on his face. Tikal blinked.

"What?" the beige princess asked, not sure she heard him properly.

"Oh never mind."

Tikal sighed. "I will have to go and visit your friend Sonic and question him about the emerald." She said.

"Wait, can't I go?" Knuckles asked.

"No, you have a duty over here and have already skipped out on it last week. You stay here, I'll go." Tikal said sternly. She turned around and focused the ancient enchanment of her forefathers to run through her veins, an echidna method that was passed down to every guardian of the Master Emerald.

"Eiko Vanisia." She chanted, then disappeared, Knuckles staring at the spot where she had been a second ago.

"I'll never get used to her doing that." He mumbled, the emerald in his hand twinkling in seeming agreement.

--

"Tikal!" Sonic said, surprised. The echidna princess paused and swept her eyes over the three figures of the group.

Her cerulean orbs travelled over the first hedgehog. The black hedgehog was giving off a mixed reading of chaos. When she had first met him, he had given the chaos colors of red and black, anger and a cruel personality. She had warned Knuckles against this new menace. But now when her eyes studied him again, she saw a large change. He now radiated blue and green chaos with areas of red, meaning friendship and care with slight anger every now and then. Though she could see his outward appearance hadn't changed much. He was still distant with his expressions.

Her eyes travelled next to the white bat next to him. She radiated off a bright yellow, showing she was strong willed, as well as a hint of violet, meaning affection. Tikal smiled slightly. She remembered her and the black hedgehog working together, showing the evil qualities of greed, deceit and a cunning personality. It amused her to know that anyone who spent time around the good heroes always changed their ways, becoming softer at heart, and more caring.

Her eyes then travelled to the blue hedgehog, the one which the world called Sonic. He always radiated yellow, white and purple standing for determination, purity and courage. Her eyes widened as she observed him. Now, he was filled with a solid, unwavering gray. This was a chaos so strange she couldn't read it. She had come simply to question him about the chaos emerald, but now she found herself crossing lines with this; extra chaos. She had only heard of this from the legends, but never experienced it before. She barely even knew the legend itself. She had only heard of extra chaos and merely knew that it should never be encountered by a living creature.

This was not good. Someone had messed up this hedgehog's chaos, which could result in serious turmoil. This could be why the chaos emeralds had split up. They had sensed the imbalance in this powerful do-gooder and had scattered.

"What are you doing here?" Sonic asked. Tikal stared at him. He seemed perfectly normal, happy even. She scanned the grounds, taking in the chipped walls and churned up soil. She raised her eyebrows. It looked like a battle had just been fought here.

"With whom were you having a battle?" Tikal asked the threesome.

Rouge smiled and rubbed her arm nervously. Shadow unfolded his arms and glanced at Sonic, who merely grinned.

"We weren't having a battle. Why would you say that?" Sonic asked, clueless. "Unless you count Rouge hitting people over the head a battle, then yeah, we were having one."

Tikal looked from the sapphire hedgehog to the white bat. "Why did you 'hit him over the head'?"

"Oh, uh, well, he was…acting kinda weird I guess." Rouge said. Tikal opened her mouth to say something, but Shadow cut across.

"Why are you here?" he asked sharply.

Tikal looked at him. "I shall tell you, of course. But you must tell me how that soil got upturned and the cracks in the wall came to be." She said, pointing at the respective places. Sonic looked at them as well.

"Hey yeah! How _did_ those things get to be like that?" Sonic asked.

"We'll tell you once you tell us why you're here." Shadow continued talking to Tikal, ignoring Sonic. Tikal nodded her head.

"As you wish, hedhehog. Not too long ago," the female echidna started. "I gathered all the chaos emeralds and hid them away, as I had promised my father. He said to do so, for it would prevent a worldly disaster that had been said to come years from his time. Hence, I did so. But Knuckles has told me that the chaos emeralds have separated from each other once more. He told me that you came to be in the possession of one, and today, he has found one as well."

Her eyes travelled to Sonic, who had perked up slightly at the mention of 'chaos emerald'.

"Does it arouse something within you, Sonic, when you hear the words 'chaos emerald'?" Tikal asked innocently, watching Sonic's reaction carefully. His ears flicked slightly again, but he said nothing, his eyes narrowed very slightly at her.

Tikal continued staring at him for a while longer before continuing. "I was told that the emeralds would only separate when they sense danger coming, so that they will not be found together and fall into the wrong hands.

"The next part I believe I will be able to tell once I know how your yard came to be like this. I believe it has something to do with your blue friend over here, am I right?" Tikal said.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, then at Sonic, who looked utterly bewildered.

"What do you mean? Are you saying _I'm_ the one who trashed the yard?" Sonic asked, surprised.

"Sonic had come under the control of something when a chaos emerald was brought within his surrounding area. He was doing everything in his power to try and get the emerald, not caring about who he hurt on the way." Shadow said. Sonic stared at him like he'd grown another head.

"I see." Tikal said. After a pause, she started talking again. "There is a legend, one about extra chaos. I am not familiar with its details and story, but I know its main facts. Everyone has their own special amount of chaos that lives up to their personalities. If injected with extra chaos, his or her personality will change drastically, or so I remember."

She turned to Sonic. "You, Sonic, have been injected with extra chaos."

All heads turned to the speed-loving hedgehog. His mouth was hanging open slightly, his brow furrowed in confusion and disbelief.

"Well, what – what am I supposed to do? How do I get rid of this 'extra chaos'?" he asked, almost as if he was begging the serene princess for some sort of consolation. She merely looked at him with sad, sky blue eyes. She didn't know.

Sonic diverted his gaze from her and looked anywhere else but his surrounding companions. "I am sorry, Sonic. I will have to find the scrolls that tell of this legend and see if there is some sort of remedy or set of instructions. Until then, you will have to stay away from – did you say it was a chaos emerald that affected him?" she asked, directing her last statement to the other two. They nodded.

"But – but what if something comes up?" he asked, worry in his eyes. "Eggman, evil robots, what if something happens and I need the help of the chaos emeralds?"

"You will stay away from them Sonic, unless you want to put your friends in danger." Tikal said, a bit of force in her voice. "When I find something, I shall tell you." With that she turned around and disappeared, Sonic staring after her, disbelief and melancholy in his eyes.

Suddenly, Tails walked back into the yard, followed by Amy, Vanilla and Cream. Tails scanned them with his bright, innocent eyes.

"So, Sonic's back to normal?" he asked. Three pairs of eyes turned to look at him, one holding sympathy, one holding despair, the last void of any emotion. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Sonic! Sonic! Where are you?!" Amy called, looking for the blue speedster. She quickly opened the door to the roof giving it a quick scan then turning back, but stopped and looked again as she saw the hedgehog she was looking for.

He was sitting out on the ledge, staring out into the landscape, lost deep in his thoughts. Amy slowly walked up to him, not knowing what to say. Something was obviously troubling him, and she had never been in this situation before. Sonic usually never had problems.

She tentatively sat down next to him, her back facing nature, her head turned to him. "Sonic?" she asked softly.

His head snapped to her, surprise evident in his eyes. "Amy! I didn't hear you coming."

After getting over the fact that she was there, he turned back to the distant lake ahead. The rosette hedgehog didn't know what was bothering him, but she had to find out what it was.

"Sonic, what's wrong?" she asked softly, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. She felt him take a sharp intake of breath and the muscles under her palm tense up. She removed her hand, wondering if it was her causing his problem. "Is it me? Did I do something wrong?" she asked.

He sighed. "No Amy, you didn't do anything." He said softly.

"Then what is it that's bothering you?" Amy asked, desperately wanting to know.

There was a pause, then he replied. "Let me tell you a story Amy." He said suddenly. She looked at him, curious.

He blinked, as if gathering his thoughts. "There was once a man, but not just some commoner," He started. "This guy was a world renowned actor, a savior who had brought joy to everyone through his movies. Everyone knew his name, everyone loved him. And he was happy with his life, or so he thought. He had legions of fans chasing him around, but he took it in his stride."

Amy frowned. What was he telling her this for?

"He had everything, or so he thought. But one day, he met a girl. This girl had been … his neighbor … for years but he had never really taken notice of her. But when he saw her one beautiful, brightly-lit night, he saw her in a new light, and he realized, over the time, he had fallen in love with her."

"Sonic, what are you-"

"Please, Amy, let me say this." He said, giving her a side look. She nodded, still frowning. "This girl used to tell him all the time … how much she admired him, how much she cared for him … but he always shunned her away." Sonic looked down. "So now that he had realized his feelings for her, he observed her, and noticed that her behavior towards him had changed. Obviously the girl had lost interest in him."

By this time, Sonic's voice had become very low, so low that Amy had to strain her ears to catch what he was saying. She scooted closer to him to be able to hear him better.

"So he tried reliving his life, trying to keep her out of his thoughts, absorbing himself in his work. And she never even knew of his feelings."

"That's so bittersweet." Amy said softly, slightly confused, not knowing what to say. Sonic continued.

"Not long after that," Sonic continued. "The man had been … diagnosed with cancer. A cancer with a treatment that was very rare, that had barely been researched about…he realized that he might not stay with his friends much longer…" Sonic trailed off, leaving a thick silence in his wake.

"What did that mean?" she asked.

He suddenly moved his eyes up to make contact with hers.

"It meant that he had to do what he always wanted to. Live life to its fullest." he murmured.

Amy's breath caught as she absorbed the enormity of his words. It was strange, but this story reminded her of real life, a life she maybe had once lived.

"Sonic, I-"

"Don't ruin the moment, Ames." He breathed.

She felt her heart skip several beats. She hadn't realized how close she had moved in towards him in order to catch what he was saying. They were barely a foot apart and his deep emerald eyes seemed even bigger and brighter than usual. She stared into them, drowning, losing herself, staring into an emotion she had never picked up in Sonic.

She felt herself drawn to him, literally. She started leaning forward, not thinking, following her heart and switching off her brain completely. She forgot about everything, what she'd been looking for him for, that the rest of the group were downstairs, that they were on a ledge on the rooftop under the moon and stars, that this was one of the most romantic situations she had ever been in around Sonic.

All she was aware of was how the heat from his body warmed her skin in the cool night, how she had closed her eyes, awaiting something she had been yearning for six years. He was so close she could feel his breath mingling with hers, so close that their noses were touching, so close she was mere millimeters from his lips.

CLANG!!

They both jumped apart, Amy standing up cursing whoever ruined the moment, Sonic positioned so he was now facing the door where the noise came from. They heard a muffled sound come from downstairs:

"Sorry folks!" Came Rouge's voice echoing through the house. "Just clumsy old me dropping a cooking pot! Carry on your business!"

Amy fumed. _Carry on your business?!_ She thought. She couldn't get that back with Sonic, not ever, he would never-

She froze. Sonic! She turned around and glanced at the handsome blue hedgehog. He had his eyes set on the door, looking as if he wanted to burn it down. Could it be that he was also mad at the white bat downstairs? She folded her arms in front of her, not knowing what to say. This was definitely the most awkward moment of her life, at least, the most awkward moment around _him_.

She finally moved her head up so she was facing him. He had one leg on either side of the ledge and both hands were in front of him, lying there, unmoving, his head turned once more to look out at the view. She sighed.

"Sonic," she started quietly. "What was that all about? I mean, what was that story?" She said, making her point clear, blushing slightly as she thought. _What was that all about?_ Sonic glanced back at her, then once their eyes met, diverted his gaze somewhere else, clearly wanting to look at anything but her. He shrugged in response to her question. Amy sighed, half annoyed, half uncomfortable.

They heard another clatter of dishes and smashing plates, then the voices of an angry Rouge telling off someone. Amy sighed, then smiled softly. "I've got to go help Rouge make dinner, before she destroys the whole kitchen."

She turned and started heading back downstairs, not noticing that Sonic had his eyes fixed on her, returning her smile.

* * *

So that was the next chapter, folks. I know it's been a while since I updated, but you can not believe that work I've been getting in from school. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you have anything to say, feel free to say it!


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